This is a collection of news about border issues, particularly those seen from Arizona and regarding the right to keep and bear arms. Sources often include Mexican media. It's often interesting to see how different the view is from the south.
If you have comments or questions drop a line to (the name of this blog)(a)knoxcomm.com

Thursday, December 22, 2011

AZMEX I3 22-12-11

AZMEX I3 22 DEC 2011

Note: Late word Thurs. 12:30 pm AZst) is that the 50 ICE personnel not yet there. But five have shown up, that makes for about one per shift, as compared to MCSO having 10 to 12 per shift. Not responsible for azrep spin.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Wednesday made a show of his detention officers turning in badges that came with their authorization to conduct federal immigration screenings in Maricopa County jails.

But federal officials say immigration enforcement at the jails will not change following a decision to revoke the authorization and take over the duties themselves.

The Sheriff's Office has had an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement since 2007 that authorized detention officers to conduct immigration screenings on every inmate booked into a Maricopa County jail.

Under that agreement, Arpaio's officers screened nearly 475,000 inmates since the agreement took effect, placing immigration detainers on about 44,000 inmates that prevent them from leaving jail until federal officials have reviewed their files.

Federal officials, however, removed that authority last week in the wake of a Justice Department report that accused the Sheriff's Office of violating civil rights and discriminating against Latino residents and inmates.

In response, 92 detention officers joined Arpaio at a news conference Wednesday where they turned in their ICE credentials.

A federal Department of Homeland Security official said a contingency plan already is in place that dedicates 50 immigration officers to enforce immigration laws at the jail.

The sole responsibility of the 50 ICE officers is to respond, apprehend and arrest people for federal immigration violations, the official said.

The ICE officers will provide coverage at the jail 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the official said.

Under the plan, all people booked into the jail will have their fingerprints automatically screened through a DHS immigration computer database as part of the federal government's Secure Communities program, the official said. ICE officers at the jail will place detainers on every person who the database shows is either an immigrant in the country illegally or is a legal immigrant accused of committing an aggravated felony that makes him or her deportable from the United States.

The official pointed out that the DHS immigration database is not foolproof. Some illegal immigrants may not show up in the database if they entered the country illegally and have never been arrested by the police or apprehended by federal immigration officials. To prevent illegal immigrants not in the database from slipping through the cracks, ICE officials will interview every person booked into the jail, unless the database shows they are naturalized U.S. citizens who are not deportable or are legal immigrants accused of petty crimes who are also not deportable.

The DHS official rebutted claims by county officials that criminal immigrants could be released into the community without the 287(g) agreement because they can no longer be held without bail under state law.

The DHS official said the federal ICE officers will place detainers on all criminal immigrants identified in the jail and instruct the Sheriff's Office not to release them on the streets. ICE officials also will instruct the Sheriff's Office to hand over to ICE all criminal immigrants with detainers upon completion of their cases.

"ICE will take custody placing, them in a federal detention facility in Arizona while they face deportation proceedings," the official said.

In addition, ICE will provide immigration information requested by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for any arrests by police agencies other than the Sheriff's Office. In light of the Justice Department's findings of discrimination, arrests by the Sheriff's Office will be handled on a case-by-case basis, the official said.

ICE will provide immigration information related to MCSO arrests only if federal officers are satisfied that no racial profiling led to the arrest, the official said.

The Sheriff's Office books about 300 inmates into jail each day. Sheriff's Detention Chief Mike Olson said the agency placed immigration-related detainers on about 15 inmates each day.

The number of detainers placed on inmates has dropped since federal officials took over the program last week, Arpaio said. Since then, he said, federal officials have placed immigration-related detainers on three inmates.

An ICE official could neither confirm nor deny that total but insisted that undocumented inmates will not be allowed to "walk free" as Arpaio has claimed.

The 50 ICE officers dedicated to the jail consist of officers from the Phoenix office as well as ICE officers detailed to this assignment from other states.

They will continue to work at the jail indefinitely, the DHS official said.

If Apraio agrees to cooperate with the Department of Justice to resolve the issues in the report, ICE could reinstate the 287(g) agreement, allowing jail officers to resume enforcing federal immigration laws, the official said.

Douglas Unified School Superintendent Sheila Rogers said last week her district is doing all it can to make sure students attending school in Douglas are legal residents."We have a new student center and anybody that registers their child has to go to the new student center," she said. "They are required to show three proofs of residence not three proofs of citizenship."

Rogers said they need to have a utility bill with their name and address on it, a rental agreement with their name and address on it, a mortgage payment."We make sure they have all these documents and we are very strict about it," she said. One of the things that is happening right now, Rogers said is that families across the line are going to Bisbee to the Court House and signing over legal guardianship to family members over here.

"If they do that there is nothing we can do," she said. "We have to accept that."

If the guardianship is transferred Rogers makes sure the paper work showing transfer of guardianship is brought in to the student center."We do checks all the time," Rogers said. "If we suspect something is wrong we will send out our security people to investigate."

The Superintendent said some of her security people down to the border last week and saw a number of students crossing."There were two van loads that went to the charter schools," she said.

Rogers said her staff is very diligent about this but the districts hands are tied if the courts allow people to become guardians.

This process has been going on for a while she said, but after the recent failure of the budget override one of the comments made by some of the voters was that it failed because of the large number of students crossing the border each day to attend school in Douglas."It was some misinformation that I want to get out now," she said.

Rogers said the district will continue to be very diligent in this process and will continue on a regular basis to check things out.

Each district receives approximately $4,200 per year per student by the state.

Rogers said there was a situation a while back where another district in southern Arizona had to pay money back to the state because it was discovered they had students from Mexico attending public schools in their community."We don't want to have money taken away from us if anything were to happen," Rogers said. "We do not look the other way."